McCollum Vote on Six-Month Continuing Resolution and the Accompanying SAVE Act

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this six-month Continuing Resolution and the accompanying SAVE Act.

Most of us do not want a CR and it is deeply unfortunate that one is necessary. Once again, the Senate did not get its work done and failed to pass any Appropriations bills off the floor. The House Republican Majority wasted months writing bills loaded with extreme social policy that the American people do not want. And still, Republicans only passed half their bills – why? Because they were so unpopular with their own conference.

Having failed to complete this work, Republicans now want to kick the can for six months. They will waste half the fiscal year, costing taxpayers billions of dollars. A CR this long would be irresponsible. The Department of Defense has also identified the consequences for our national security. A six-month CR would have negative impacts on our Military Personnel and their families. It would not include funds to cover the 4.5 percent pay raise for Service Members. It would not fund the nearly $3 billion increase required by law for the Basic Housing Allowance. And it would not include funds needed to cover medical costs for military families and stabilize the Military Healthcare System.

The Services would not be able to offer new enlistment and reenlistment bonuses – harming recruitment efforts. New program starts can’t happen under a CR. This harms innovation and delays getting weapons and equipment into the hands of our personnel quickly. Keeping major defense programs on time and on budget will be more difficult. 

A CR will delay multi-year procurement of platforms like: heavy lift helicopters and Virginia Class Submarines. It will pause investments in our space-based satellite architecture. It will prevent full funding for the Columbia Class Submarine, and delay procurement of the B-21 Raider. Finally, CR’s damage the readiness of the Joint Force. Training exercises and operations that are needed to ensure we can win any fight – they won’t happen.

The Navy will suffer a delay of 58 ship maintenance availabilities, limiting work for our public and private shipyards. Air Force flying hours, weapon system sustainment, and ground combat readiness will suffer. We know this to be true – why?

We just had a nearly six-month CR in Fiscal Year 2024 which impacted DoD’s ability to budget appropriately. The last thing we should do is compound this problem. We also have the Fiscal Responsibility Act to consider. Because if all 12 appropriations bills are not enacted by the end of April, sequestration takes effect.

What does that mean? Across the board spending cuts impacting everything from national security, to infrastructure, to healthcare and education. That is a gamble none of us should want to take.

To make a bad deal even worse, the Speaker has tacked on a partisan voter-suppression tool known as the SAVE Act, in an attempt to appease his most extreme Members. If this bill became law, the vast majority of Americans would need more than one document to vote. We need to be removing barriers to the ballot box not adding more. The Senate will not pass this bill, and it will not become law. We should reject this legislation - pass a clean short-term CR -and roll up our sleeves and get to work.

I yield back.